US 'concerned' about DRC
2004-06-24 09:38
Kigali - Visiting US Deputy Secretary of State for Africa Donald Yamamoto on Wednesday voiced deep concern about the unrest in the eastern part of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo following talks with President Paul Kagame.
"We in the United States are very, very concerned about the ongoing situation in eastern Congo and we have come to discuss the situation with the Rwandan government and the president," he told reporters.
But he said the situation in DRC, which is struggling to emerge from a five-year war in which 2.5 million people were killed through fighting, illness and starvation, was less serious than a few weeks ago.
In the past month, the region around the DRC town of Bukavu has been the scene of clashes between so-called dissident soldiers, who have refused to be incorporated into the new army, and government troops. The dissidents overran and held Bukavu, which lies near the border with Rwanda, for one week at the beginning of June.
DRC President Joseph Kabila has accused Rwanda of backing the dissidents, who pulled out of the town on June 9.
One of the dissident leaders, Colonel Jules Mutebesi, fled to Rwanda on Monday with 300 men after fresh fighting broke out in Kamanyola, a border town, between the renegade soldiers and the army.
Yamamoto, who earlier visited the DRC capital of Kinshasa, refused to say how Washington would react if Rwanda were to send troops back into DRC.
"We have with Rwanda, just as we have with Congo, very strong links," he would only say.
Meanwhile a UN spokesperson said at least 17 civilians had been killed in two weeks of fighting between DRC troops and dissident soldiers in Kamanyola.
A spokesperson for the United Nations mission in DRC, Eliane Nabaa, speaking by telephone from Bukavu said a senior UN official, General Jan Isberg, on Wednesday travelled to Kamanyola and described the situation as "stable".